04 August,2016 08:14 AM IST | | AFP
The US Tennis Association on Tuesday unveiled a long-awaited retractable roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium in time for this year's US Open, ensuring rain will not ruin the last Grand Slam of the year
A roof with a view: The new retractable roof at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
New York: The US Tennis Association on Tuesday unveiled a long-awaited retractable roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium in time for this year's US Open, ensuring rain will not ruin the last Grand Slam of the year.
A roof with a view: The new retractable roof at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
The roof is the flagship improvement in a multi-year $600 million upgrade of the USTA's Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.
Rain pushed back the men's final to Monday five years in a row from 2008 through 2012 and delayed last year's epic contest between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic by more than three hours.
The gleaming new roof - a 6,500-ton steel superstructure with teflon covering and a surface area of 17 Olympic swimming pools - should put an end to washouts of key matches when the US Open begins on August 29.
The roof demonstration for reporters went flawlessly - almost. In the first phase, the roof dutifully unfurled itself in about six minutes after Ashe's widow Jeanne pressed an activation button.
About eight minutes later, King herself was sent to the controls to reopen the court to natural sunlight. This time, the roof didn't budge. After another failed attempt, the roof eventually behaved on a third try following a reboot of the sensor system, said USTA executive director Gordon Smith.
"This wasn't a real-life situation," Smith explained, noting that a decision to deactivate the roof during actual play would only take place after the rain had passed.
